From the hearth of the home

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray.  We've had a wonderful fall, but winters on its way.  That's part of a song that comes into my head as I finished my scrappy log cabin quilt.  (I took the liberty to change a couple words :)

The first scrappy quilt I made was this same scrappy log cabin.  I posted about that quilt in March 2019.  Of all the quilts I've made everyone always picked that quilt as their favorite. In fact, my friend who made the same scrappy quilt said that she was told the same.

 As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm the Education Director for the AuSable Quilt Guild.  The guild has been donating their scraps throughout the year to our Trash to Treasures tote.  The tote actually got pretty full.  In August the education committee announced that the totes fabrics would be cut into 1 1/2" strips for our last challenge of their calendar year.  Each guild participant had to contribute one yard each of dark and light colored cotton fabrics to be mixed with the tote fabrics.  The fabric would be redistributed to participants to make a lap size scrappy log cabin.  We had 20 participants.  They had two months to work on their creation (or longer if they needed it).  The fun part comes when you decide to lay the blocks out, there are so many different layouts.  As of this posting there have been quite a few quilts that have been finished and shared during our Show and Tell.  All of them were laid out different and were absolutely awesome.  It's a little addictive that I want to make another so I can try a different layout.

My original scrappy log cabin was gifted to Charlie who admired my piles of quilts and picked it as his favorite.  So I made another scrappy log cabin with the diamond layout.  Instead of a lap quilt I did make it large enough for a queen bed, but to accommodate the. design my finished size is 80" by 100".

Being on the education committee I've made the effort to learn some history on the blocks/quilts I've made and share with my fellow quilters.  The history I find always surprises me.  Here is some history on the log cabin quilt block that I found online (What di we do before computers):  

This style of quilt is called “Log Cabin” because of the pattern. It is made with a central shape, such as a square or a diamond, in the middle. This represents the hearth or fireplace, which is a place of warmth and activity in a log cabin. The early pioneer settler home, the log cabin, became an iconic symbol of the taming of the wild frontier and for achieving the American Dream. The log cabin symbol was so popular, a quilt style was named after it.  Quilt historians found that the Log Cabin design became popular in 1863, when the Union Army was raising money for the Civil War by raffling quilts. President Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin so the pattern may have been a symbol of loyalty to him as head of the Union. 

A red center square was thought to symbolize the hearth of the home, a yellow center was believed to represent a welcoming light shining through the window.  During the Civil War a log cabin block with a black center hanging on a clothesline was meant to sign a stop for the Underground Railroad. 

In the latter part of the 19th century the block became very popular as our nation was nearing the centennial in 1876.  Many Log Cabin quilts were made using fabric scraps that were popular during that time including silk, velvet, wool, and satin.

Earlier sources for the log cabin inspiration goes as far back as Egyptian mummy wrappings with the well known design of rectangular “logs” laid in a square pattern.

My first scrappy log cabin had no rhyme or reason for the center blocks.  The instructor for that class  I took did not offer any information about the center.  I just picked what I thought looked good.  This recent Log cabin does have a red center to represent the hearth of the home.

This was a fun quilt and a great way to use up miscellaneous fabrics from my stash and scraps.  I have another smaller log cabin project I'm almost finished with.  I'll be posting about it soon. So now that the skies are gray I'm heading back to my sewing studio.